Spidey senses, dance career, heightened by New Ballet training

Maxx Reed, seen here in his Spider-Man costume, is one of nine male ensemble members who play the comic-book superhero in the Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.”

Courtesy of Maxx Reed

Every move Maxx Reed makes on stage in the Broadway production "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark" is a victory not only for him, but also for his parents, the teachers who recognized and nurtured his talent, and the city that helped shape it.

Reed, who grew up in Bartlett, is one of nine male ensemble members in the show, each of whom plays Spider-Man, complete with red-and-blue costume and mask. "I do stunt work, flipping and tumbling," he said, including one "pit fall" that requires him to fall 15 feet through a hole in the stage and land on his back on a crash pad.

And there's plenty of dancing. "There's a dance sequence where we've strung together classic Spider-Man poses from the comic books," he said. "I think that's probably one of my favorite parts."

For Reed, 23, a hyperactive student who had trouble concentrating in school, the Broadway show is much more than a giant leap in his dance career. He sees it as his opportunity to inspire other young people like himself and to honor those who helped him realize his dream.

His mom, Carole Reed, a speech therapist who homeschooled her son during part of middle school and the last two years of high school, said he would perform in Ellendale Park near their home, running up a tree and flipping off it, and people would toss money at him. His dad, Robert Reed, drives big rigs for the U.S. Postal Service.

Tae kwon do boosted his agility and acrobatic ability, and his dancing progressed with lessons at Studio B in Germantown and time on the Junior Grizzlies Dance Team.

"We would go dance hip-hop with one group, then go dance ballet with another group; then we'd go somewhere else," his mother said. "He danced with anybody that would let him dance."

Reed was 14 when he came to the attention of Katie Smythe, CEO and artistic director of New Ballet Ensemble and School. Smythe founded the school, now at 2157 York, in 2001 to offer a professional standard of ballet training to children from all backgrounds, regardless of their ability to pay.

The young dancer was offered a New Ballet scholarship. "At the time, I didn't know what ballet was, and I wasn't interested," Reed said. "I wanted to do flips and spin on my head and do break-dancing like Michael Jackson."

Smythe said she was committed to teaching him the same serious ballet technique she taught her other students, but had to do it in a very specific way. "I had never danced to classical music, and she let me do it my way," Reed said. "I got to wear my clothes and do it my way, but be around ballerinas and dance to my music."

His freestyle hip-hop moves and his hyperactive nature made ballet class a tall order at first. "I have always had a very difficult time focusing," he said. "But when I started dancing, my strong suit is I can pick up choreography really quickly."

Smythe said the structure of ballet training eventually served as a framework to bring him order. "He wanted to do everything, and it (ballet) got him organized."

Said Reed: "Being able to match the chaos of your internal brain with the amount of physical activity and thought it takes to be a ballet dancer, it creates a balance that makes your mind quieter."

He was "still iffy on the whole idea of training to be a ballet dancer," but a trip to watch a visiting dance troupe at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre was the turning point. Athletic moves by the male dancers impressed him. Coincidentally, he now shares a dressing room in Spider-Man with one of them.

"I spent the next few years with Katie, five hours a day, five days a week, nothing but ballet," Reed said. " I learned more than I even imagined could exist as far as dance.

"I like to say hip-hop walked me to the ballet barre," he said.

Smythe offered Reed a spot in her professional company when he was 16 or 17. "I was making money doing what I love," he said.

Eventually, Reed worked as a dancer in Los Angeles, where he appeared on the reality show "Dance War" and was a backup dancer for Usher on the American Music Awards show. In between, he came back to Memphis to work, teach and train at New Ballet.

Reed said he was visiting his parents in Bartlett when he stumbled on the trailer for "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" on Broadway. "I watched it and saw people flying around," he said. "In that moment, I had decided that was the next job I wanted."

And after an audition in L.A., he got it. "He immediately called me from the audition and said, ‘It was ballet that got me this job,'" Smythe said.

Reed will have been in the show at the Foxwoods Theatre for a year next month, and plans to extend his contract for another six months. In the eight shows a week, he not only is one of the Spider-Man dancers, but also sings and plays other characters, including Electro, a villain who shoots fire from his fingers and head. "You don't really ever feel powerful until you can shoot sparks out of your hand," he said.

Reed is keenly aware that now he might influence future dancers, including ones like himself for whom ballet lessons might be a stretch financially.

Reed is one of the faces of a new ad campaign for New Ballet, to promote awareness of the school and raise money for scholarships. In the "I am New Ballet" campaign, Reed talks about being a hyperactive and insecure kid and says a scholarship to the school gave him the opportunity to grow and gain the skills to earn a living performing full time on Broadway.

Another successful New Ballet student, Charles "Lil Buck" Riley, is known for his blend of jookin', a homegrown style of street dance, and classical ballet. His collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma in a video performance in 2011 went viral, and since then he has traveled to Beijing with Yo-Yo Ma and Meryl Streep for a cultural arts forum, performed with Madonna and been the subject of a documentary.

In the future, Reed hopes to dance in a movie or go from being a co-star to a starring in a show.

But his career so far is a "victory for Memphis," he said.

"I'm not a rarity as far as ability of youth in Memphis; the opportunity to leave and do what I am doing is the rarity," he said. "I would like to make that less rare. And programs like Katie's program (are) doing that."